Canada prepares to tackle COVID-19 on a city-by-city basis

The fight against the COVID19 pandemic was originally framed in wartime terms, as a national struggle. Then we divided along provincial lines as the virus took hold in Quebec and Ontario, leaving places like Manitoba and New Brunswick virtually untouched.

Now, cities are preparing to tackle their own unique outbreaks as the initial wave of infections turns into a series of localized eruptions.

Consider the situation in Kingston, Ont., where the city of about 137,000 people has seen 63 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

By Tuesday, 62 of those cases had resolved, leaving a single confirmed case in the community. There have been no deaths and no outbreaks in long-term care homes, yet people in Kingston are still living under restrictive stayat-home orders issued across the province.

“A one-size-fits-all approach is becoming increasingly difficult,” said Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson in an interview with the National Post.

To put the numbers in context, Ontario announced 446 new cases on Tuesday, seven times more than Kingston has experienced in total since the first COVID-19 case arrived in Canada.

“I’m speaking with mayors in the Toronto-area saying things are moving too fast for them. And then you have situations in Eastern Ontario like ourselves where we’re hearing from our own public health officials that we’re ready to move to the next stage. That’s showing there’s a real case for a regional approach,” said Paterson.

It’s a similar situation in Ottawa, where the city has reported new cases in the single digits for the last week and, although there are 18 institutional outbreaks in the city, only 187 confirmed cases out of 1,969 were acquired in the community. People in Ottawa have endured the provincial mandates and city rules against lingering in parks, along with some of the most overzealous bylaw enforcement in the country.

After resisting a local approach to the crisis, the Ontario government seems to have had a change of heart.

“We need a plan that recognizes the differences on the ground in different parts of our province,” said Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday afternoon.